Cable highway guard



M y A. E. BRICKMAN 2,349,643

' CABLE HIGHWAY GUARD Filed June 30, 1942 3 Sheets-Sheet l ml MW INVENTOR'.

ls ATTORNEY."

A. E. BRICKMAN CABLE HIGHWAY GUARD Filed June 30 1942 May 23,; I944.

3 Sheets-Sheet 2 A g 0 6 1 z INVENTOR.

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5 ATTORN May 23, 1944. A. E. BRICKMAN v CABLE HIGHWAY GUARD Filed June 30, 19 42 5 Sheets-Sheet-IS INVENTOR.

Patented May 23, 1944 CABLE HIGHWAY GUARD Alan E. Brickman, Monongahela, Pa., assignor to The American Steel and Wire Company of New Jersey, a corporation of New Jersey Application June 30, 1942, Serial No. 449,126

9 Claims. (Cl. 256-431) The present invention relates to specific features of improvement in the supporting means for cables constituting the guard elements of a highway road guard.

The invention will be fully apparent from cons'ideration of the following detailed disclosure, the accompanying drawings and the appended claims.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a portion of a highway road guard embodying the present invention;

Figure 2 is a front View thereof;

Figure 3 is a plan of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a section on line IV-TV of Figure 2;

Figure 5 is a detail view of a nose plate; v

Figure 6 is a detail view of a cable retainer element;

Figure 7 is a View similar to Figure 1 illustrating a modification;

Figure 8 is a front elevation of Figure '7;

Figure 9 is a plan view of Figure 7; and

Figure 10 is a detail view illustrating the means for attaching the nose plate to an outer convolution of the spring bracket of Figure 7.

Referring in detail first to Figures 1 through 6,

of the drawings, It) represents a supporting post which is a rolled steel structural section of stock form including forward roadside flanges l2 and rear flanges 54 connected thereto by a central web It. An important feature of the present invention is the provision of a special type of resilient supporting bracket. In the embodiment shown in Figures 1 through 3, the cable supporting bracket is in the form of a flattened helical spring indicated as a whole at E8, whose axis is horizontally disposed and thus perpendicular to the upright supporting post It. The convolutions of the spring bracket are formed while in a hot and therefore plastic state, onja driven mandrel having a surface contour corresponding with the internal shape of the bracket as shown in Figure 1. The lead or pitch of thethus coiled spring bracket is controlled by a fixed guide conjunction with a raceway geared to the mandrelto produce the formation of spring bracket shown in Figures 3 and 9. The extremities of the spring bracket are bent to the condition shown in Figures 1, 3 and 7 after withdrawal of the formed spring bracket from the mandrel. The roadside convolutions are shaped to a convex or crowned configuration as indicated at 22. The spring bracket as a whole is secured to the supporting post by a special form of clip 24. This clip is made of flat strip steel so bent as to form three arcuate seats 26 adapted to fit over the three adjacent flat convolutions 20. The middle seat 26 is straddled by a U-bolt 28, the parallel legs 30 of which pass through suitable apertures formed respectively in the clip and in the flanges l2, the bolt being fastened firmly by nuts 32. Secured to the roadside crowned convolutions of the deformed helical spring bracket there is a nose plate 34 which is held in place by fittings 36-36, best shown in Figure 4, which are firmly clamped to the spring by bolts 38 and nuts 40.

The nose plate 34 is notched at a plurality of points, as indicated at 42, for interengagement with a quick connectable cable positioning element 44. This element has a notched portion 46 which is adapted to be entered through the upper or widest part of the slot 42. Thereupon the cable 48 may be temporarily supported by the clip, as indicated in Figure 10, after which the upper end 50 is sprung into position by a tool T so that it properly holds the cable in assembled relation with the nos plate carried by the outer convolutions 22 of the spring bracket.

In the embodiment of Figure 2, three cables 48 are shown. Because of the crowned cross sectional configuration of the nose plate it is apparent that the central cable is located at athe flat convolutions 20a which are securedt'o' the flanges l2 of the post. In the modified construction the front face of the modified nose plate 34a is substantially vertical. However, it is provided with rearwardly extended wings 52-52. The clip for securing thespring bracket is the- .same as that shown and described in the other figures, and the like parts are correspondingly numbered. The quick connectable cable retaining elements which operatively hold the cables 48d in operative relation to the nose plate 38a (are also of identical construction to that shown in Figure 1. The parts are therefore correspondingly numbered.

In all embodiments of the invention illustrated, it will be noted that the axis of the spring bracket is horizontal and therefore perpendicular to the upright or vertical supporting post. This relationship of the disposition of the spring is regarded to be important and quite critical since it produces a condition favorable to a horizontal yielding oi the spring bracket when the same is hit by protruding parts of a colliding car traveling hard against the cable guard elements. The horizontal disposition of the spring, in combination with the flattened elliptical shape thereof, has the advantage over any vertically disposed coiled spring bracket for the reason that it is better able to resist vertical movement of the spring and consequently of the guard rail elements supported thereby. Vertical yielding of the spring supporting bracket for a cable guard element is objectionable since such movement tends to permit a vehicle wheel to get under or over the element, depending somewhat upon the nature of the impact. The horizontal disposition of the spring bracket of the present invention overcomes this problem.

While I have described quite precisely certain specific details of the embodiments of the invention illustrated, it is to be understood that various modifications and substitutions of equivalents may be made by those skilled in the art without departure from the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Iclaim-z 1. In a highway guard, a guard rail element, a coiled spring bracket Whose axis is substantially parallel to said element, a supporting post, a clip engaging a plurality of adjacent convolutionsv spaced lengthwise of the spring bracket, means securing the clip to the post, a nose plate, and a fitting securing the latter to the spring bracket in spaced relation to the post, said supporting elements being carried by said nose plate.

2. In a. highway guard, a guard rail element, a helically coiled spring bracket whose axisis substantially parallel to said element, a supporting post, a clip engaging a plurality Of convolutions spaced lengthwise of the spring bracket, means securing the clip to the post, a nose plate, a fitting securing the latter to the spring bracket in spaced relation to the post, and quick connectable cable positioning elements, each having notched portions interlocked with. T-slots formed in the noseplate.

- 3; In a cable type highway guard, a plurality of guard cables, a coiled spring bracket whose axis extends lengthwise of said cables, a supporting post,,aclip having a plurality of arcuate seats engaging convolutions of the spring bracket at points spaced lengthwise of theguard cables, a U- bolt anchored to the post and straddling one of said seats, a nose plate spanning a plurality of substantially upright convolutions of the spring and secured thereto in spaced relation to the post, and respective elements carried by the nose plate for positioning the cables in predetermined spaced relation to the post and to one another.

4.. In a highway guard, a, plurality of guard cables, a flattened helical sprin bracket having a plurality of substantially upright convolutions, the axis of said bracket being substantially parallel with said cables, a supporting post, means for securing the upright convolutions of the bracket to the. post, a nose plate secured to the spring in spaced relation tosaid upright con volutions, and means carried by the nose plate for positioning said cables in predetermined relation to the post and to one another,

5. In a highway guard, a rail element, a flattened helical spring bracket having a plurality of substantially upright convolutions, the axis of said bracket being substantially parallel with said rail element, a supporting post, means for securing the straight convolutions to the post, said spring bracket having bowed convolutions spaced from the post, a nose plate bowed to fit the said bowed convolutions, fittings notched to interfit with said bowed convolutions of the spring, means for clamping the fittings to said nose plate, and means secured to the nose plate for positioning said rail element in predetermined relation to the post.

6. In a cable type highway guard rail, a plurality of guard cables, a coiled spring bracket whose axis is disposed substantially parallel to said. cables, a supporting post of rolled structural steel having a web and roadside flanges, a U-bolt whose shanks pass through said flanges on opposite sides of said Web, a clip havin a plurality of notchesspaced lengthwise of the cables for engagement with adjacent convolutions of said spring bracket, a notched part of said clipand a convolution of the spring being straddled by said U-bolt, and a nose plate secured to the spring in spaced relation to the post, said guard cables being positioned by retainer elements carried by said nose piece.

'7. In a cable type highway guard rail, a plurality of guard cables, a horizontally disposed fiattened helical spring bracket whose axis extends substantially parallel to said cables, said bracket having a plurality of substantially upright convolutions, a supporting post, means for securing the upright convolutions to the post, a nose-plate se cured to the spring in spaced relation to said upright convolutions, and means carried by the nose plate for positioning said cables in predetermined relation to the post and to one another.

8. In a cable type highway guard rail, a supporting post, a guard rail element, a resilient bracket composed of a coiled sprin having at least one convolution with its helical axis extending substantially parallel to the length of said guard rail element, a clip engaging the spring bracket, means securing the clip to the post, a nose plate, a fitting securing the latter to the spring bracket in spaced relation to the post, and guard rail element supporting means carried by said nose. plate.

9. In a cable type highway guard rail, a supporting post, a guard rail element, a resilient bracket composed of a coiled spring having substantially upright convolutions with its helical axis extending substantially parallel to the'length of said guard rail element, a clip engaging said spring bracket, means securing the clip to the post, a nose plate, a fittin securing the latter.

to the spring bracket in spaced relation to the post, and guard rail supporting elements carried by said' nose plate, said spring bracket being so shaped as to present straight substantially upright portions of its convolutions adj acent the post and convex upright portions of its convolutions spaced from the post.

ALAN E. BRICKMAN. 

